Peacemaker Returns for Season 2 With a Trippy, NSFW Ride into James Gunn’s New DC Universe

James Gunn’s Peacemaker series is a testament to a creator doing whatever it takes to keep a good thing going. 

Gunn created the live action DC Comics series, a spinoff of his 2021 The Suicide Squad film (not to be confused with 2016’s Suicide Squad), to tell a hilarious, R-rated story set in his own twisted little corner of the DC universe—which at the time was still under the old regime that featured Ben Affleck’s Batman, Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman and Henry Cavill’s Superman. Gunn’s Peacemaker only crossed over with that wider world for a brief cameo moment in its finale, where we see the Justice League arrive too late to help with an alien attack Peacemaker and his team have to handle. But by simple fate of timing, it still established Peacemaker firmly in the “old” version of the DC movie universe.

But then Gunn was hired to co-run DC Studios and reboot the whole thing, which started up in earnest this summer with David Corenswet’s excellent new Superman movie. Peacemaker was a passion project for Gunn, and one he wanted to keep making—so he effectively just ret-conned it into this new-look DC universe, little worse for the wear. Is it a bit confusing? Sure. But if you’re watching a show like Peacemaker (or are a DC fan in general, natch), you’re probably savvy enough to parse the messiness of this reboot business and willing to roll with it.

Was it worth all the finagling to keep John Cena around as Peacemaker to get a second season of his broken superhero saga? Thankfully, yes. Peacemaker and his crew haven’t lost a step in this smart, subversive new chapter. Sure, it’s a chance for Gunn to keep playing in a sandbox he enjoys, but the series now serves as a legitimate piece of the new DC universe puzzle, showing there’s space for aww shucks family adventure like Superman right alongside heroes who are more likely to snort cocaine off a bathroom sink and host an orgy when they’re feeling down. Which is to say, Peacemaker hasn’t been toned down in its second season. If anything, Gunn takes things even further for round two.

This new story picks up in the wake of the first season’s thwarted alien invasion, with Peacemaker and his team now unappreciated heroes trying to find what’s next in their lives. Peacemaker is mostly staying under the radar, but finds himself thrust back into ARGUS’s crosshairs when he starts toying around with the dimensional portal his father left behind. As Superman fans have already seen, that type of technology can have massive consequences when misused. But when Peacemaker stumbles upon an alternate universe where everything turned out right in his life, he can’t fight the temptation to keep going back. 

It’s a clever set-up, and Gunn (who wrote all eight episodes of the new season, and directed three of them) has a deft hand when it comes to how to wring as much emotion, drama, humor, and comic book easter eggs out of an alternate reality story like this one. It also makes for a unique structure, with a few antagonists scattered around (including Frank Grillo’s Rick Flag, Sr., fresh off his Superman appearance). But Peacemaker himself is often his own worst enemy when it comes to finding new and exciting ways to screw up across two universes, instead of just one.